Approximately 3% of the United States population have been diagnosed with inflammatory skin disease such as psoriasis. There are two main treatment modalities. One is treatment with drugs and the other is treatment with light, typically UVA or UVB.
The problems with the drug treatments are the potential side effects. Steroids can cause thinning of the skin, bruising and stretch marks. Systemic drugs can cause high blood pressure, birth defects and damage kidneys.
The light based treatment is effective without the side effects but requires 15 to 30 treatments to be effective. These are typically done in a “tanning booth” device, which exposes healthy skin as well as affected skin to the treatment. Thus the dosage is limited to one to two MED's (minimal erythemal dose) to avoid sunburning and blistering of healthy skin. This requires the patient to return every few days, for a total of 15 to 30 treatments to reach a cumulative therapeutic dose.
A device is needed that will provide the benefits of the light treatments in a more efficient manner. The proposed device will provide large amounts of energy directly to the affected site in a short amount of time. As affected skin tolerates doses at one sitting of three or more times the MED of healthy skin, this reduces the number of treatment sessions required to reach the therapeutic dose. This method also eliminates the need to expose healthy skin to the treatment.
Prior art systems using flashlamps have not been capable of significant light output in the UV or IR regions. The reason for this is in the design of the flashlamp and the power supply that drives the lamp. Conventional flashlamp systems are capable of producing therapeutic output primarily in the visible region (500 nm to 650 nm) and in the near IR (650–850 nm). In contrast, the present invention allows and uses therapeutic outputs in the UV as well as the mid IR (850 nm-1300 nm).